Another Re-enacted budget???

"Re-enacted budget" na naman? Here's another blow to GMA's mantra of "fiscal responsibility":

IT'S getting to be a habit, this reenactment of the budget. Congress early this year decided against passing the proposed 2004 budget ostensibly for lack of time before the campaign period kicked in. Some voices in the wilderness warned there were more insidious reasons for the reenactment, among them giving President Arroyo virtual carte blanche on how to spend government money in aid of election. As it turned out, the critics were right. Arroyo was able to shamelessly raid the treasury to buy the election.

So what's the reason this time why reenactment is being entertained? And, please, spare the people from the lame excuse that there is no more time.

Of course, there is time, if only lawmakers would put their nose to the grindstone and not be distracted by circuses.

House leaders say the delay is due to the decision to shift to line-item budgeting. That's hogwash. The Department of Budget has a compilation of the individual agencies' itemized budget proposals which, after the necessary pruning, were consolidated in the proposed budget finally submitted to Congress.

The DBM people can come up with a line-item budget in time for the resumption of session after the current one-month break. After that, there's two months remaining in the year during which Congress can go over the proposal.

And it's not even true that there is a Dec. 31 deadline for the budget's passage. The 2003 budget and those of the years before that were passed and signed into law around February. The "reenactment" in these cases covered only a couple of months, not a complete reenactment for the whole fiscal year.

So what gives? Frankly we do not know. The Arroyo administration keeps on repeating the mantra of "fiscal responsibility." What could be more irresponsible than running a government based on spending needs that date back to 2002?

The creditors and investors are watching. Two successive years of budget reenactment is certainly not the way to reassure them. Yet the administration seems prepared to run the risk of further erosion in confidence.

Something funny is going on. And it's not funny as in amusing. It's funny as in sneaky, underhanded, suspicious and deceitful.

Mukhang niloloko na naman tayo ng Arroyo administration ah!